


No Greater Thrill Than Chasing A Close Call

by professorplum221



Category: Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors
Genre: Blood and Violence, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Rough Sex, Violence, Violent Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27424687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorplum221/pseuds/professorplum221
Summary: Bannick runs into a chaos marine that he recognizes
Relationships: Colaron Lo Bannick/Unnamed Chaos Marine
Kudos: 9





	No Greater Thrill Than Chasing A Close Call

Bannick recognized the chaos marine almost immediately, even from the distant vantage point of his position in the shadowsword. Something about the way the superhuman danced across the battlefield was unmistakably unique, and Bannick felt a stab of pain in his arm as he recalled their first meeting on Geratomro—the duel that had been cut short by the arrival of the Black Templars. He wondered if the marine faced any more difficulty in battle these days, after the loss of his birth heart.

Maybe not, since he had seemed unperturbed—amused, or perhaps even aroused—in the moment that Bannick destroyed it.

By the time Bannick saw him again, the battle was winding down, with the side of chaos making a gradual and disorganized retreat. As powerful and frightening as the marines were, they were outnumbered—the Imperial Guard commanders had made sure of that. Even with their unnatural ability to partition their brain function, they were still something close to human, and no man could stay on his feet and fight forever in the face of unending waves of tanks and infantry. So it was that the man Bannick was looking for appeared to be resting when we found him, leaning his massive frame against a jagged rock face with his helmet off and his eyes closed.

He leapt up to defend himself when he noticed his enemy's approach, but Bannick struck faster. His power sword sliced across one of the marine's high cheekbones, cutting a thin red line through a purple tattoo of the mark of Chaos Undivided. The marine staggered back, clutching his wound for a moment before recovering—and then startling once more as he recognized the soldier who had inflicted it.

"It's you!" he exclaimed, his full lips curling into a bemused smile. He took a step toward Bannick, bending down slightly to make eye contact. "Did you seek me out? Did you enjoy the exquisite agony of our last encounter so much that you would experience it again?"

Bannick answered by throwing his arms around the chaos marine's neck and pulling him down into a desperate and forceful kiss. He could taste the blood that he had just drawn on his lips.

The marine broke away with a peal of laughter that sounded somehow malicious, even in its joyful tones. Then he gestured for Bannick to follow him as he slipped through an entrance in the rock face behind them.

Bannick lingered for a moment in the mouth of the cave, asking himself what he was doing here. Letting his guard down around one of the empire's most terrifying enemies, risking his life, and for what? For a dark and irrational desire that he didn't even fully understand?

He considered running away, back to the post he had abandoned—back to a normal Imperial Guardsman's life. But then he saw the rippling of the marine's shoulder muscles as he removed his armour, and desire overpowered his reason again.

The man's nude body was as grotesque as it was beautiful. His marble skin, which stretched across muscles of unnatural size, was dotted with cybernetic sockets that were made to connect him to the Black Carapace usually worn beneath his armour. His arms and chest were decorated with more arcane tattoos like the ones on his face—some in vivid colour, others faded with immeasurable years. Stark white scars snaked around some of them, and Bannick wondered about the battles from which they had been born.

Alongside them was the one wound he recognized: a rough and jagged scar on the marine's chest that had yet to fully heal, a memento of the first time they met. Bannick reached his hand up to touch it, but the marine instead caught his wrist and pressed him against the cold, uneven wall.

He removed Bannick's much simpler armour with deft efficiency, and Bannick soon felt the warmth of his companion's bare skin pressed against his, alongside the mixed sensations of exploratory fingers, lips, and teeth against his neck and shoulders.

A moment later, the marine seized a handful of Bannick's hair and forced him down onto his knees—before almost immediately bursting into laughter. Bannick couldn't be sure if it was out of general amusement or specifically inspired by the realization that, because of the marine's massive stature, the position they found themselves in wasn't as effective as it would be with two people closer in height. Still, Bannick did his best to make it work, tilting his head up to use his mouth as much as possible and ignoring the sharp rocks that dug into his knees.

But the space marine was unsatisfied. He tightened his grip on Bannick's head for a moment before tossing him sideways—an apparently effortless flick of his wrist that nonetheless sent Bannick flying for a moment before crashing into the hard rock floor.

He winced, but had no time to tend to the scrapes he could feel on his back and arms before the marine was on top of him, sinking his teeth into one of Bannick's shoulders.

Bannick gasped in surprise for a moment, and then sighed as he suddenly felt an unexpected sweetness to the pain. The marine drew back and kissed him, and Bannick responded with the same ferocity and enthusiasm, feeling like every throb of his newly opened wounds brought him one step closer to understanding how the mysterious man in his arms had felt that night that they first met on the battlefield—to understanding an experience that he wanted Bannick to share. 

The marine broke away once more to reposition himself, and Bannick cried out in pain as he forced his way inside him. But he made no move to stop him, resolved to follow these new sensations wherever they led.

Bannick looked up at the man on top of him, cursing the disparity in their heights that made it impossible to kiss him again in this position. He settled instead for running his tongue along the jagged scar on his chest, which drew a satisfied sigh from the marine's lips.

The sensation that spread further through Bannick's body with each stabbing thrust he endured was overwhelming, and unlike anything he had experienced before. He couldn't stop himself from moaning, digging his fingers into the space marine's back as he lost all grip on the reality of his situation for a few blissful seconds. The sound of his voice seemed to spur on the space marine, who rapidly increased the rhythm of his movements for a few moments before his body was seized with his own climax.

He collapsed next to Bannick afterwards, and in his arms, Bannick felt like the cold and uneven floor of the cave was the most comfortable place he could possibly be.

But his first thought once he had caught his breath was to lament that he had no way to properly clean himself up before getting back into his armour. He sat up and sighed.

Lying on his side, the space marine trailed his fingers down Bannick's spine. Sharp nails grazed the skin, infusing even this act of tenderness with a twinge of pain.

"Stay with me," he crooned.

Bannick shook his head and stood up. "I have to get back to my guard unit. They'll be looking for me already."

"You intend to go back?" The marine's seductive tone betrayed a hint of disappointment.

"I shouldn't have left in the first place. I don't know what I was thinking," Bannick mumbled, more to himself than to his companion, as he hastily began to get dressed. "I'm probably in deep trouble already."

"Then don't go. You liked this, didn't you? I know you did."

The marine drew himself back up to his full height, and Bannick paused, his eyes fixed on the superhuman's sculpted chest.

"Let me take you with me to my master, Slaanesh." A sadistic smile danced at the corners of the space marine's lips. "He'll be so pleased to meet you. And he can give you such power—and so  _ many _ experiences like this one. Whatever you desire."

Bannick felt his gaze drawn upward to meet a pair of twinkling eyes that were as tempting as they were terrifying. In those eyes, he could almost see the life he might lead as a worshipper of chaos—a life full of violence and eroticism intertwined, both intimidating and terribly tempting. But then he thought about the life he already had, and his friends back in the shadowsword, who were sure to give him an earful about his mysterious disappearance as soon as he returned. 

He shook his head and replaced the last piece of his armour. "I serve no power but the Emperor on the Golden Throne. You are my rightful enemy, and the next time I see you, I'll have to kill you."

It was a bluff, of course—he may have managed to wound him twice, but only with the element of surprise on his side, and it would take a lot more than that to kill a space marine. No mortal man could hope to accomplish that by himself, and the marine knew it. As Bannick turned his back and left the cave, he once again heard him laughing uproariously in response.

"Oh, you'll have to kill me, will you?" the marine called out to Bannick's retreating figure in between delighted chuckles. "Well, the next time  _ I _ see  _ you _ , I'll have to fuck you even harder. And  _ then _ I'll have to kill you."

Even as he attempted to remind himself of the negative consequences his impulsive actions would soon have, a part of Bannick couldn't help but look forward to whatever that next meeting might bring.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I got into Warhammer 40k very recently, and most of my knowledge of it comes from reading the Imperial Guard books and asking my friend a ton of questions about the lore. I was surprised to see that as far as I can tell, no one else has posted anything inspired by the incredibly homoerotic duel in Shadowsword yet. Hopefully the next person who reads that book and has the same reaction as I did can find this and enjoy it!
> 
> Title ripped off from the lyrics of "Knife Thrower" by Charming Disaster.


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